Chapter 1: The Haunted Yōlin (Part 1)

  After entering the cave, there was no light inside, only the rustling of insects mixed with the intermittent sound of water flow. No one knew what secrets were hidden in its complete darkness. Ding Lingxiu and Guo Mohan couldn't help but feel anxious and uneasy as they walked in.

  The fear of darkness has always been an irresistible instinct for human beings.

  "Did you bring a flashlight?" Guo Mohan asked.

  "En." Ding Lingxiu took out a high-intensity flashlight from his backpack and handed it to Guo Mohan.

  The bright light of the flashlight formed a beam of light in the dark cave, attracting a large number of flying insects, forcing the two to constantly swing their flashlights to keep them away.

  The deeper they went into the cave, the colder it got. The chill in the air was oppressive, and the gusts of cold wind made Ding Ling's skin crawl with goosebumps. He zipped up his jacket and the cigarette he was smoking was suddenly extinguished by a falling water droplet. He pinched off the damp cigarette butt and struggled to relight it for half a day before finally managing to get it going again. Guo Mohan also buttoned up her windbreaker and put the small pouch in her handbag.

  The little girl blinked her big eyes, shivering in the cold wind, singing a soft song, seemingly enjoying this dark environment. While Ding Lingxiu and Guo Mohan both tensed up their nerves, cautiously taking small steps forward.

  In the deep cave, the terrain was rugged and treacherous, making every step a struggle. The two of them followed the sound of the wind, laboriously climbing upwards. On the rocky slope, venomous snakes occasionally slithered out, hissing and spitting, but upon seeing the pouch on Guo Mohan's back, they seemed to be intimidated and scurried away, turning into tiny black shadows in the dim light, flashing by in an instant.

  Two people climbed the slope for about thirty meters, and the steep terrain in front of them suddenly leveled out, forming a flat ground. Ding Lingxiu threw his backpack onto the flat ground, grasped a stone with both hands, which had a strange texture and a faint temperature. Ding Lingxiu arched his body to climb up, but before he could exert himself, the stone actually moved.

  "What the...!" Ding Lingyu was shocked and loosened his grip.

  "What's wrong?" Guo Mohan looked up in the direction of the sound, and his flashlight shone on that piece of stone.

  All that can be seen is that the large stone, although it looks no different from ordinary stones, but upon closer inspection, it can be discovered that the surface of this stone is covered with a large amount of wet mud and fragmented rocks from caves. The areas on the stone's surface that are not covered by the wet mud and fragmented rocks surprisingly have regular patterns, similar to snake skin, but even denser than the scales on a snake's skin, one piece next to another, like ancient armor.

  "There's a strange big stone here, just now I wanted to climb up and grab it, but it actually moved." Ding Lingxiu looked at the strange stone and said, "Look, it's moving again."

  Guo Mohan had actually seen it too, at first she thought it was an optical illusion caused by the flashlight shaking, but this time the big stone moved very obviously, the wet mud on top was squeezed together, in the light of the lamp it looked like a wrinkled old man's face, and the mud flowed down along the cracks between the lines on the stone.

  "It's really moving, but this doesn't seem like a stone......" Guo Mohan raised an eyebrow, looking at the stone with suspicion.

  "I don't know what it is, but it's blocking the way up. If we don't use its power, we really can't climb up. We can't fly on walls, after all." Ding Ling's azure eyes deepened in the hazy smoke, and just as he meaningfully blinked his eye circles...

  He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his soft ribs and immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream.

  "Ow! Miss Guo, why did you pinch me?"

  "It's already hard to see here, and you're still smoking. Are you sick?" Guo Mohan's face was expressionless, his voice devoid of any playful tone.

  Ding Lingxiu helplessly looked at her and extinguished his cigarette.

  But at this time, things have changed unexpectedly.

  That strange stone seemed to be startled by Ding Ling's mournful cry and shook even more violently.

  Before long, the sound of falling gravel came from the big stone, followed by two squeaking sounds. The big stone shook violently and then twisted open like a twist egg toy, revealing a strange creature inside.

  Guo Mohan was shocked and surprised, but did not dare to approach rashly.

  The strange creature inside was actually a snake with its tail in front, which might sound weird because if the tail is in front, isn't that just the snake turning around? But the creature in front of Ding Ling and Xu Ren was indeed like this. It looked very much like a snake, covered all over with tile-like scales, extremely small black shiny eyes reflecting fluorescent light under the flashlight, its body behind its head constantly growing larger, its stout body completely different from ordinary snakes. Only when it fully stretched out did the two of them see the true face of this monster.

  "What kind of demon is this? I didn't even learn about it from my father, and it's not even recorded in the demon history?" Guo Mo's cold face was also filled with a look of doubt, staring at the monster in surprise.

  "Haha, this guy isn't some kind of monster or ghost, it's just a pangolin that's grown a bit bigger." Ding Lingyu said with a smile.

  "So this is a pangolin!" Guo Mohan suddenly realized, as if he had remembered something.

  Ding Lingxiu looked at her and continued:

  "This animal my father told me about when he was teaching me Feng Shui, it can be used to determine the structure of a cave because the pangolin's burrows have a very particular structure that changes with the seasons and food availability. Normally there are two types: one for summer, usually built on a well-ventilated, cool, high slope to prevent flooding, with short tunnels and simple structure; and another for winter, built in a sheltered sunny spot, with more complex structure, winding tunnels shaped like a gourd, and every so often a wall made of piled earth, also passing through two or three ant nests that serve as its granary. Although I've heard the elders mention it many times, this is my first time seeing one, and I didn't expect it to be so big."

  Ding Lingxiu thought for a moment and said:

  "It's May now, following this logic we should be in its winter den, so there may be many forks and tunnels here, the environment will be more complicated."

  Guo Mohan nodded slightly:

  "This makes things even more difficult for us."

  Two people were studying the pangolin's burrow, when suddenly the pangolin became somewhat abnormal. Its black and shiny small eyes stared straight at the two, as if very angry, and the scales on its body made a rustling sound.

  And with this tremor, black ** seeped out of the mud and sand on the slope, slowly flowing down along the slope. Ding Lingxiu shone his flashlight on it, unable to see the true color of the **, but a faint fishy smell entered his nostrils.

  "What's wrong?" Guo Mohan asked.

  "It seems to be demonstrating. Ding Lingxiu was also uncertain, after all, this kind of creature is still rarely seen in China, and he had only seen it once or twice when he was a child following his father into the mountains to hunt demons."

  "Protesting with bodily fluids? Is this poisonous?" Guo Mohan hastily dodged the flowing **.

  "No, this is blood, it must be injured." Ding Lingxiu sniffed the smell in the air again.

  Guo Mohan shone the flashlight on the pangolin's head, wanting to take a closer look. Ding Lingxiu tried to stop him, but it was too late. The beam of light hit the pangolin's gray scales, illuminating the blood flowing between them with a dark glow. In the dark glow, one could clearly see that on this pangolin's abdomen, in the row of shield-like scales, there was actually a very frightening scratch mark, and this blood was flowing out along the scratch mark.

  The pangolin, stimulated by the strong light of the flashlight, stopped shaking and let out a sharp cry similar to that of a mouse. It instantly curled up into a ball shape and rolled down from the slope. The giant pangolin, after curling up into a ball, looked even bigger than before, with a diameter of at least one meter. As it rolled down, the entire slope shook violently.

  All of this happened in an instant, almost as soon as Guo Mohan shone the flashlight on the pangolin, it rolled down. At such a close distance, she didn't have time to react at all, while Ding Lingxiu had anticipated that the pangolin might be frightened by the light and make an excessive reaction, so he was prepared in advance, rushed over, and pressed Guo Mohan against the rock wall on one side.

  Two people behind a loud noise, the slope was smashed out of a big pit, dust flying everywhere, followed by a series of rumbling sounds along the slope all the way to the cave entrance, disappearing without a trace.

  The flashlight was stuck on the rock wall, and everything around became hazy. Ding Lingxiu could only feel a faint fragrance and a series of rapid breathing sounds beside him. He struggled to open his eyes in the dust and saw that he was half-embracing Guo Mohan, with both of them staring at each other in confusion.

  Guo Mo's cold and elegant face showed a hint of shyness for the first time, her clear and pure black eyes dodged Ding Lingxiu's gaze, her slender body leaned against the uneven rock wall, still somewhat frightened but pretending to be calm.

  "Just now... it was too dangerous... so..." Ding Lingxiu said with some embarrassment as he supported Guo Mohan's waist.

  "It's okay, thank you, but can you take your hand off?" Guo Mohan's throat was choked with emotion, and he gently pushed Ding Lingxiu's chest with his hand.

  Ding Lingxiu only then reacted, Ding Lingxiu's other hand was actually pressed on Guo Mohan's plump chest in the midst of anxiety. Being coquettishly scolded by Guo Mohan, the full and soft tactile sensation immediately stimulated a reaction in Ding Lingxiu's body, and his mind was instantly filled with romantic thoughts.

  This Ice Beauty's chest is really big, but isn't it too big? Ding Ling Xiu thought secretly.

  Suddenly, a burst of applause came forth.

  "Ah......" Ding Lingxu let out a painful wail, but he not only received a slap from Guo Mohan, he also felt a sharp pain coming from the hand that was touching his chest.

  What? How can her breasts bite people?

  Ding Lingxiu lowered his head and took a look, only to find that his hand had actually touched Jiangnan's head.

  No wonder it's so big!